Airlines grapple with pandemic disruptions and a surge in unruly passengers

Judy Woodruff:

The number of unruly passengers on airplanes is surging. The Federal Aviation Administration has reported nearly 500 incidents so far just this year.

Now some airlines are calling on the Justice Department for help.

Our chief Washington correspondent, Geoff Bennett, has the story.

Man:

Waited four (EXPLETIVE DELETED) hours for this plane!

Geoff Bennett:

Over the last two years, the so-called friendly skies have often been anything but.

Man:

If we don't stand up, it's only going to get worse!

Geoff Bennett:

Rowdy air travelers berating flight attendants and pulled off planes by police. This year alone, the FAA reports that there have been 499 incidents of unruly passengers, 324 of which have been mask-related; 80 cases have been referred to the FBI for criminal review.

Earlier this month, on an American Airlines flight from L.A. to Washington, a man tried to open the plane door in mid-flight. Court documents say a flight attendant hit him in the head with a coffee pot to subdue him. Other passengers held the man down until they could make an emergency landing in Kansas City, Missouri.

Police have now charged 50-year-old Juan Remberto Rivas with interfering with a flight attendant.

The pilot recounted the ordeal to passenger Mouaz Moustafa.

Mouaz Moustafa, Passenger:

Did he try to get at the cockpit door, or was he just trying to, like, open the door of the plane?

American Airlines Pilot:

He was trying to, but he couldn't get to it. And then he tried to. He actually tried to open the…

Mouaz Moustafa:

The plane door and the cockpit door?

American Airlines Pilot:

The plane door, yes.

Mouaz Moustafa:

Both of them?

American Airlines Pilot:

Yes.

Geoff Bennett:

The increased, constant threat from passengers is wearing on flight attendants.

Sara Nelson, President, Association of Flight Attendants: You're seeing a direct result on that morale. People just can't face it every day.

Geoff Bennett:

Sara Nelson is the president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA union. She says what's happening now is unprecedented and pins it on pandemic stress and confusion over COVID protocols on planes.

How does this stack up against what happened before COVID?

Sara Nelson:

These were events that would happen on our planes that were a really bad day at work. You might experience it once or twice in the course of your entire career.

And now flight attendants are every single day going to work and understanding that it's very likely that they're going to experience this conflict, and maybe up to and including a physical assault.

Geoff Bennett:

Airlines now asking the Justice Department to keep unruly passengers from boarding flights in the first place. Earlier this month, Delta CEO Ed Bastian sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland asking for a national no-fly list that would bar that person from traveling on any commercial air carrier if convicted of an on-board disruption.

The Justice Department says it is reviewing the letter and will continue to prioritize investigations and prosecutions of those involved in airplane misconduct.

Sara Nelson says a national no-fly list is long overdue.

Sara Nelson:

A banned flier list that has this due process in place and also has a communication vehicle, so that, on the day of the incident, every airline can get notified if there has been an egregious event on board one flight. And we can avoid boarding someone onto another flight to create another problem on that airline.

Geoff Bennett:

A move eight Republican senators say that should be up to Congress to decide. In a new letter, they claim most unruly passenger incidents are related to the federal transportation mask mandate, writing: "Creating a federal no-fly list for unruly passengers who are skeptical of this mandate would seemingly equate them to terrorists who seek to actively take the lives of Americans and perpetrate attacks on the homeland."

Sara Nelson says the worst in-flight incidents often have nothing to do with the mask mandate.

Sara Nelson:

The real problems on the planes, the ones where people are really violating the law and may end up serving time in jail when DOJ gets through the process of prosecuting them, those oftentimes have not started with a mask issue at all.

And so I want to be really clear that there's a lot of people who would love to add this to the politicization of this pandemic and try to say that this is all over masks, and it's just not true.

Geoff Bennett:

Alison Sider writes about airlines and travel for The Wall Street Journal.

Alison Sider, The Wall Street Journal:

It's just turning out to be quite complicated to figure out how to handle these incidents that involve unruly passengers.

So, there's a lot of questions about, if there is a no-fly list, who should be on it? What agency should oversee it? And I think it's turning out to be very complicated.

Geoff Bennett:

So, what does this all mean then for an industry that's trying to rebound from the pandemic?

Alison Sider,:

Airlines really want people to get back out there, especially as the Omicron variant seems to be receding. But, yes, as flights get more crowded again, this is just another thing that the airlines, and particularly the flight attendants and the crew, have to deal with, and the airport employees.

It just makes their jobs a lot harder as they're dealing with these increased passenger numbers that it's — even a small number of people coming back to travel are causing these disruptions.

Geoff Bennett:

With airlines warning disruptive behavior won't fly.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Geoff Bennett.